Titans Open Gymnastics Season In Minnesota
The UW-Oshkosh women's gymnastics team begins the 2019 season this weekend with a conference dual meet at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minn. The season opener is set for 4 p.m. Sunday (Jan. 5) in Walker Field House.
Sunday's meet is the first of 10 events before the Titans host the National Collegiate Gymnastics Association (NCGA) Championship for the first time on March 23 in Kolf Sports Center.
The NCGA Championship features the top six Division III teams in the country and at-large individual qualifiers competing to determine national champions. UW-Oshkosh is set to host its first national collegiate event since the 1987 United States Gymnastics Federation Men's & Women's Division II-III Championships.
UW-Oshkosh travels to the University of Illinois at Chicago Quadrangular on Jan. 13 before conducting its home opener Jan. 19 against conference rival Gustavus Adolphus College (Minn.). The Titans remain at home to host conference dual meets against UW-Eau Claire on Jan. 25 and Winona State University (Minn.) on Feb. 1.
The University of Illinois at Chicago Quadrangular will feature the Titans battling three NCAA Division I opponents in the host Flames, Centenary College (La.) and Kent State University (Ohio).
The Titans conclude their regular season slate with a conference dual meet at UW-La Crosse on Feb. 8, the Seattle Pacific University (Wash.) Quadrangular on Feb. 15, a triangular meet at reigning NCGA champion UW-Whitewater alongside league foe UW-Eau Claire on Feb. 24, and a conference dual event at UW-Whitewater on March 2.
The Seattle Pacific University Quadrangular will be comprised of the Division II host Falcons, Division I member U.S. Air Force Academy (Colo.), and the Division III Titans and UW-Whitewater.
UW-Oshkosh will compete at the WIAC Championship on March 9. Hosted this season by UW-Stout, the league championship also serves as the NCGA West Regional. The WIAC Championship/NCGA West Regional determines the automatic qualifiers for the national championship.
Last season the Titans placed seventh at the WIAC Championship and ended the year ranked eighth nationally in the 14-team NCGA. UW-Oshkosh secured dual meet victories over both Gustavus Adolphus College and Hamline University a year ago.
UW-La Crosse is the defending WIAC champion, claiming its league-leading 24th title with 191.875 points to narrowly slip past runner-up UW-Whitewater's total of 191.825.
Hamline University finished third in last year's WIAC standings with 189.700 points while UW-Eau Claire was fourth with 187.775, Gustavus Adolphus College fifth with 185.725, Winona State University sixth with 184.900, UW-Oshkosh seventh with 184.700 and UW-Stout eighth with 183.825.
UW-Whitewater went on to claim the NCGA title with 193.700 points in Springfield, Mass. The Warhawks were followed in the final team standings by second-place UW-La Crosse with 192.550 points, third-place The College at Brockport (N.Y.) with 191.350, fourth-place Hamline University with 190.000, fifth-place State University of New York at Cortland with 189.900 and sixth-place Ithaca College (N.Y.) with 188.175.
Junior two-time national champion Baylee Tkaczuk headlines the 2019 UW-Oshkosh roster under 12th-year head coach Lauren Karnitz. Tkaczuk successfully defended her NCGA individual title in the uneven bars with a meet-record score of 9.85. She also won the uneven bars crown with a score of 9.775 as a freshman in 2017.
Tkaczuk, the 2017 WIAC balance beam champion, also earned All-America honors on the balance beam last season after recording a six-place score of 9.725 at the NCGA Championship.
The Titans return 11 letter winners from last year's squad, including sophomore Amira Ali, senior Bailey Finin and junior Jessica Bernardo. Ali and Finin averaged a team-leading 9.372 on vault and 9.414 on floor exercise, respectively, last season, while Bernardo was the NCGA runner-up in the all-around competition in 2017.
UW-Oshkosh sophomore Paige Mayhew returns after compiling averages of 36.233 in the all-around, 9.278 on vault, 9.134 on floor exercise and 9.075 on balance beam during her debut collegiate season. Senior Bailee Hardy and junior Marisa Scholtens are also back for the Titans after averaging 9.206 on even bars and 9.138 on balance beam, respectively, last year.
The two-time national champion Titans are seeking to return to the NCGA Championship team competition for the 16th time and first since finishing fifth in the country in 2014. UW-Oshkosh won NCGA titles in 1989 and 2007, and produced national runner-up efforts in 1990, 1991, 1993 and 2001.